Comments from Scotland on politics, technology & all related matters (ie everything)/"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."Henry Louis Mencken....WARNING - THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS HAVE DECIDED THAT THIS BLOG IS LIKELY TO BE MISTAKEN FOR AN OFFICIAL PARTY SITE (no really, unanimous decision) I PROMISE IT ISN'T SO ENTER FREELY & OF YOUR OWN WILL

Friday, February 24, 2012

Rates of multiple sclerosis are so "dire" in Scotland that essential foods should be fortified with vitamin D, according to an Oxford academic.
Professor of clinical neurology George Ebers has published a study showing a strong link between the condition and vitamin D deficiency.
He says the Scottish government could face legal action from people who go on to develop MS in future.

The "legal action" threat is a clever one. It presupposes that government is respo9nsible when it doesn't regulate us enough, which is a slippery slope of an argument. On the other hand in the current atmosphere, mixing equal parts of big state fascism and bureaucratic inaction on all subjects it is probably relatively effective.

Looking at the governmental responses to this adding vitamin D to Scots' food has gone from the stage
of being a left field idea which only the politically marginalised could ever support (ie me in 2008) to being so politically acceptable that no politician is willing to go on record as opposing it. The argument now is merely that we must never act with anything approaching speed but "would be guided by the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition which was due to issue new advice on vitamin D in 2014" and "that trials of vitamin D supplements in large populations were needed before the Scottish government could act" which is remarkably similar to their position given to me on my proposal for a monorail at Glasgow airport - that because it hadn't been considered in detail one couldn't say with certainty that it was "so superior" to the (now cancelled) alternative and until such time as this superiority had been proven by detailed examination no such examination could take place. Really.

Oh well, if progress is glacial and our political classes do everything possible to avoid any decisions, at least, in the vitamin D case there actually is a little progress.

I did start taking a capsule most days a couple of years ago when I wrote on the subject. Not a statistical sample and moderately subjective but I had a sinus problem which largely cleared up shortly after and generally feel fairly fit for somebody who doesn't bother with exercise.

Presumably this problem is aired, even in the tabloid press. When the means of avoiding it are so cheap and so easily available, what need is there for the government to do anything about it?

Ireland is suffering from increased levels of depression as a result of its difficulties with the euro. A prminent doctor at a a bona fide conference seriously suggested that lithium should be added to the water supply rto reduce the number of suicides.

The idea of an all-benevolent, omni-competent government is horrendous.

Edward thjis is a point at which I cease being purely libertarian. It is a legitimate difference of opinion and I still share your horror about the Irish suggestion. I would point out that we do have such a nominally free tabloid press and pills are relatively cheap but the problem has pbviously not been solved.

However there is a significant cost in producing & distributing pills and where it is a medicine that the enttire population need I suggest that merely adding it to bread will produce economies of scale and distribution which will make it cost much less than distributing separate pills, as well as reaching a far larger proportion of the population than pills do now.

Regarding lithium I consider suicide to be a human right, indeed the ultimate human right, and find meddling with people's thinking processes obscene, which is why I am on your side of the line on that.